How often do we flee when God tells us to give ourselves to those who have hurt us?

Romans 8:19-22 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, _in hope 21that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
Jonah 4:9-11, Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” In Scripture we see that creation has suffered by the hand of man and that redeemed man treats creation differently. However, the lesser will always give way to the greater, and man is the greater. It is amazing to watch as people show more compassion to plants and animals than to people, to live in a society where it is more important to protect a bird egg than the heart, mind, and innocence of a child or the life of a human fetus. Often the reason why people are that way is that they have been hurt by others, which makes loving a pet or a tree safer than giving themselves to others. I can only imagine the rejection and suffering that Jonah had experienced at the hands of others, so much so that when he was commanded to go to people, he fled. How often do we flee when God tells us to give ourselves to those who have hurt us? The amazing thing about Jesus is that where we fail, He succeeded. Though everyone rejected Him in the end, we see Him going forward to a cross to give Himself for all those who had hurt Him. We must admit where we are. After so much hurt, many of us have decided never to give ourselves to others again. However, if we invite Christ to be our love, we will find that what is impossible for us is easily possible for Him.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Romans 13:14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
If you hate your job, it is because you have emotionally quit it. It appears obvious that once you hate something, it will soon follow that you want nothing to do with it. Let’s apply this simple principle in a different way. If you hate your sin, it is because you’ve emotionally divorced yourself from it and want nothing to do with it. The next step is to acknowledge the fact of it and embrace your freedom. Many people would rather do what they want to do and beat themselves up in self-hatred later than do what the Lord is asking them to do and be happy. Why? Why do they spend a lifetime doing this?

He will never leave nor forsake me, and He understands everything about me.

Is. 59:2, But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

I hate the fact of separation. I invite in sin, so the glue (Jesus) that is holding me together begins to retreat from my mind, my will, and my emotions. I sense that I am losing something. I am out of sync. It is terrible. He doesn’t leave me but only retreats to give me what I thought I wanted: freedom from His will. The break between mind, will, and emotions and Him is really a state of neurosis. My life that is bound up in His attempted to break away. It is sickening, but it does work for Him, because eventually I can’t stand my will and cry out, “Thy will, not my will,” and invite the sin out. I invited it in; I can invite it out. Next He returns and I am complete once again. Well, all of that is of my own doing. Jesus has experienced the very same thing, but by our doing, not His own. The sins of the whole world were cast on Him to the degree that it drove His life out of Him. I am so happy that He has identified with me, that He knows this sick feeling that comes from separation, that He works and moves me back to Him, and that He always floods back through my whole being the moment I repent. He knows the joy of reconnecting with the Father, and He wants for me the same joy. He will never leave nor forsake me, and He understands everything about me. Though Jesus’ experience of being separated from God did not come by way of sin, it did come through the cross, and therefore He knows the feeling of separation. He has entered into our humanity completely.

. If someone has their name blotted out of the book of life, it is because they specifically wanted it erased.

Deut. 29: 20, “The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.”
Rev. 3:5, ”He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Rev. 20:15, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
From the foundation of the world it was God’s desire that none should perish. God even sent His own Son to that end. Therefore, from the foundations of the world everyone has their name written into the Lamb’s book of life. It doesn’t seem to be a matter of choosing Jesus one day and then rejecting Him the next, thus having one’s name blotted out of the book of life. However, there is a choice to stop believing in Jesus. It is interesting that children want to believe in Jesus. In fact, they have to be taught not to believe in Jesus. It is not so much that we make a choice that gets our name in His book; rather, it is that we make a choice that gets our name out of His book. I often hear from people, “One day I just stopped believing.” Unbelievers like to lay all blame at the feet of God and yet maintain their freedom to choose what they want. If someone has their name blotted out of the book of life, it is because they specifically wanted it erased. It is getting the desire of the heart. God will not go against the heart, and if the heart wants out, it can get out.

All things created have an awareness of their Creator, for it is in Him that all things are held together.

To destroy anything mindlessly is a sin against Jesus.

Romans 8:19, For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. I feel sorry for creation, from the cows and chickens that are forced by man to be cannibals, to the fish that have industrial waste dumped on them, to the forests that are destroyed. All things created have an awareness of their Creator, for it is in Him that all things are held together. To destroy anything mindlessly is a sin against Jesus. God never intended us to mess with His artwork the way we do. There is nothing wrong with need; you can eat a cow and you can eat the calf, but you are not to boil the calf in the mother’s milk. Putting genetic material from one being into another doesn’t lead to improvement but to distortion. The trees and mountains proclaim Him. Jesus said that even the rocks would shout out His name. No wonder creation longs for the revelation of the sons of God. As a child I remember killing a small bird, not to eat, but for nothing. It haunted me and still does. I know that coming to Christ changed my view and treatment of creation. It just wouldn’t be right to visit my earthly father and break everything he has made around the house. It is not right for man to break what the Father in heaven has made. The abuse of creation is most obvious in countries without a Christian base. Where there is abuse of man, you can imagine the abuse of creation. I am not a “greenie”; I just love what my Father has made. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

“And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” Acts 8:1

It is said that in the U.S. there are over 50,000 new laws passed every year. That includes, local, state, and federal. This doesn’t include all the covenants that are passed. Why so many laws? First, the government would like a law to replace the conscience of man. The government believes in abortion. How can there be abortion without the hardening of the heart? (However, I have met many where the intellectual argument for abortion could not override their heart. For those, there has been forgiveness, restoration, and a moving on in Him.) Kill conscience in one area and it is likely to die in another.

The second reason for the multiplication of laws will be revealed in the future. Persecution for the Christian is coming to America. It would seem impossible since Christianity is the foundation for the constitution, laws, and the fact that there is freedom of religion. Christians won’t be put in jail for their Christianity. That would be too overt. Christians will be put in jail for some other vague law that will have been broken. It was the joke in the former Soviet Union, “We will put you in prison and find the law you broke later.” However, when it happens, it will be no joke.

“And as for you, you meant evil against me, {but} God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Gen 50:20

I really dread bringing up my bible college days, those days when we sat around and discussed how ignorant congregations were, how they didn’t do what they knew was right, and how they could be so stupid. I can’t stand those memories primarily because all my judgments befell me.

It is so easy to stand on the work of others, carnal or spiritual, and make judgments. For years I actually believed that my thinking was my thinking, that I owed no one. I would read the anti-nicean fathers and think, “How could they believe that?” It was easy to look back through history and assess what was right or wrong with those believers.

Well, I am getting older and see that I stand on their shoulders, that what many did, in the light of what they had, has brought me into a greater light. I am not independent of them. I am not smarter. I was born in this age, with this education, all for a time to come. It is easy to look at some doctrine that a Luther or Calvin believed and judge them. However, I stand in my reality and judge them in theirs.

My point is twofold. First, all that the believers did before me, good and bad, has helped to make me what I am. I am indebted to them and not as independent as I would like to think. Second, I should never despise the work of God, which can be accomplished through the good or the bad in a saint.

Many are angry over the bondage that they lived under in legalism. They despise those that taught it to them, manipulated and controlled them through it. Don’t! Their teaching didn’t bring you into bondage. Their teaching revealed that you had a righteousness of your own. Only a self-righteous person would attempt such a journey with such a teacher. It’s your fault you were in bondage. You went along with it. God permitted it because He knew that you needed it! It was being in bondage that made you long for freedom. It was bondage that makes your freedom today so precious.

Therefore, bless those that used you, abused you, and brought you under bondage. God used them to make you long for a contrast.

Gal.4:4
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son”

I remember waiting and working to purchase a car and my grandfather telling me that working for the car was more fun than possessing it. He was right! There was more enjoyment from waiting, thinking, and imagining than from the actual possessing. Waiting maximizes enjoyment.

When a child is given everything he wants and not made to wait, the parent is actually cheating the child out of a blessing. We are made in the image of God, and God enjoys waiting. He waited for the fullness of time to send His Son. Why did He not send the Son the instant Adam and Eve fell? Waiting adds maximum enjoyment and benefit to the gift of the Son. He still sends the Son, in the fullness of time, into hearts of men today. So, wait in faith for the salvation of your child or husband or for personal freedom.

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” John 8:31-32 NASB

Isn’t image interesting? If we could be free from image, we would be free indeed. But to be free from image, we must see God, not ourselves. In some Third World countries I am given great respect only because of skin color, dress, and money. People give way on the street, and few would argue with me.

However, if I were, say, a “common” tea picker, people would chase me away with a switch if I crossed their path. I would be dressed differently, my skin would be a little darker, and I’d have no money.

Image dictates a lot when we consider that all of us came out of the womb naked, and naked we will leave in the end. There is no difference in men; there are only images. Image makes us treat the poor man with contempt or compassion, and the rich man with respect or hatred mixed with the desire to be like him. The fear of the loss of image can keep us from taking a risk, making a phone call, looking for a new job, going to a restaurant considered out of our league, or disagreeing with the pastor. Some image groups can’t stand it that other image groups consider themselves better, so they use slander or riches to try to bring the others down and build themselves up.

Do you see why Jesus dealt so little with the world’s system? It is a circle; it is the same, and it goes nowhere. “All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been, will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look? This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.”

Once we are free from image, we will free everyone else from image. We will neither pander to the rich nor show compassion to the poor. We will minister to the individual! We will see beyond image to the exact need that Jesus saw in man. Our teaching will change; our emphasis will change. How to be free? We must admit where we are, to leave where we are. Admit that you are a slave to image, and ask that He free you. He will do it in a way you had not imagined. Many believe the way to the loss of image is to be humiliated through a sinful defeat. This doesn’t destroy image; it just draws attention to it and gives a person a different image. God’s way is different. You will see. Just ask

Today we talk and talk and talk and it is merely
the whirl around our emptiness. What have the
gays gained, women, minorities, more whirl and
yet he same amount of emptiness. Can it be true
that to be happy we need Jesus plus, rights,
acceptance, a loving and kind mate, a good job,
freedom? NO! Jesus plus is false theology.